Cheyenne Hendricks holds No No Bad Bunny in 2012. Now a high school graduate, she says most of her college fund has been spent to feed and shelter her wards at the sanctuary.

Photo By MARVIN PFEIFFER/Marvin Pfeiffer / EN Communities

A lionhead relaxes at the sanctuary, which never turns away an abandoned rabbit.

Photo By MARVIN PFEIFFER/Marvin Pfeiffer / EN Communities

Two rabbits peer outside their hole at Retired Rabbit Sanctuary. The rabbits come from all across the state.

When Cheyenne Hendricks was 4, she noticed something heartbreaking when her neighbor moved.

“They just left their pet rabbit in the front yard,” said Hendricks, who took in the animal despite the protests of her parents and six older brothers. “That's like leaving a baby there and expecting it to know what to do.”

Fast forward to 2014, where that one small act of kindness by Hendricks — who just graduated from high school — has blossomed into the Retired Rabbit Sanctuary, a small preserve on her family's 15-acre property in East Bexar County.

Much of Hendricks' family has spread, to Dallas, Houston and Wyoming, where she said they've opened “mini-branches” of the preserve.

About 150 bunnies from all over Texas — and as far away as San Diego, California, and Kansas — have made the pilgrimage to San Antonio's sanctuary, some missing paws, eyes and ears. Some are abandoned Easter presents; others have survived stints as dogfighting bait.

“People see rabbits like stuffed animals,” Hendricks said. “But unlike a cat or a dog, they are more suspect to predators, illness, neglect and abuse. They're very hands-on, high-maintenance animals.”

The preserve consists of 10 13-by-15-foot pens and a large, fenced-in enclosure, where three guard dogs ward off coyotes and other predators.

Kyle Hendricks, Cheyenne's father, said that the rabbit population requires 100 pounds of food a week. Combined with veterinary costs, that runs the weekly cost of caring for the bunnies to about $400. Spaying and neutering procedures can cost up to $500 per animal.

According to Hendricks, the preserve is the only one of its kind in Bexar County and one of only a handful of rabbit-specific preserves in Texas and surrounding states. The sanctuary takes in nearly 20 rabbits a month, and this year received 60 in the weeks following Easter. There's even a wild population of 20 jackrabbits that has sprung up near the property; they stop by for food on occasion.

The sanctuary has placed a financial strain on Cheyenne, who just graduated from East Central High School and has yet to decide on a college. She works several part-time jobs to help care for the rabbit brood and says her work with the sanctuary is well worth the stress.

“Most of my college money went to the rabbits,” Hendricks said.

“As draining as it can be, it's worth it to know that we can be dependable. It brings me joy that we can be that safe haven for them.”

Houston resident Selma Graham, a retired friend of the family, helps run a “mini-branch” of the sanctuary. Graham shelters the organization's handful of rabbits with special needs in Houston and helps oversee the growing intake of out-of-state rabbit refugees that end up at the San Antonio reserve.

“The (sanctuary) gets calls from all over the state,” Graham noted. “It's a lot of work.”

Graham also helped oversee the sanctuary's rescue of about 50 California bunnies in June.

“In some cities, some rabbits are automatically killed if they aren't deemed savable,” Graham noted. “With San Diego, they were overloaded, their shelters were too full ... so we put the (rabbits) in carriers, got volunteer drivers, loaded up a van and had them driven down here (to Texas).”

Graham said people should think twice before buying rabbits as pets or releasing domesticated ones into the wild.

“Dumping them in the wild is an automatic death sentence,” she said.

Hendricks said the reserve partners with the San Antonio Humane Society and Animal Defense League but is “desperate” for donations. She eventually wants to put roofs on all the pens to protect the rabbits from the Texas heat and make other modifications.

The sanctuary accepts donations at retiredrabbits.org and is always open to rabbits in need, regardless of space, Hendricks explained.

“We operate at close to full capacity at all times,” she said. “But if more come to us, we can't turn them down.”